Community Gardening days are often themed at the Sunken Garden and for July we joined in with one of the largest citizen science projects – The Big Butterfly Count – initiated by Butterfly Conservation
Described as taking the pulse of nature, counting butterflies helps to assess how much help nature needs. The data from this, and other counts across the UK, also helps identify important trends in species that assist in planning how to protect butterflies from extinction, as well as understanding the effect of climate change on wildlife.
On Saturday 26 July with participants of all ages we counted 10 species with over 100 butterflies in the Sunken Garden, including large white, small white, gatekeeper, green veined white, meadow brown, red admiral, holly blue, common blue and Jersey tiger.
A big special thank you to Roland from Butterfly Conservation for sharing his knowledge and love of the subject.
The counting continues until 10th August, so what are you waiting for?
Register on The Big Butterfly Count 2025
Download the app
And get counting…
